As Selection Sunday approaches, here are some of the thoughts of players and coaches likely to play key roles in the 2000 NCAA women’s basketball tournament:
– Katie Douglas and her teammates on the three-time Big Ten tournament champion Purdue Boilermakers are brimming with confidence about defending the NCAA title they won last year.
– Point guard and team leader Helen Darling of the Penn State Lady Lions, whom Purdue upset in the finals of the Big Ten tournament, wonders aloud whether the Lions’ effective trapping defense hurts the team as much as it helps.
– And coaches Geno Auriemma of No. 1-ranked Connecticut and Muffet McGraw of No. 5 Notre Dame firmly believe that the Big East Conference has a good chance to place two teams in the Final Four in Philadelphia.
Douglas, a 6-foot-1-inch junior guard from Indianapolis, clearly was the MVP of the Big Ten tourney. She led the event in scoring, averaging 22.7 points a game. She hit 7 of 13 three-point attempts, including 5 of 7 in the title game. She sank 17 of 20 free throws, had 15 assists and played 118 of a possible 120 minutes in three games.
“We definitely have momentum now to carry us into the NCAA tournament as it did last year,” Douglas said. “Nine of us played in that tournament. That experience can help us.”
One of the Boilermakers’ great strengths is their composure, developed last year when Stephanie McCarty and Ukari Figgs were the senior leaders. The team that Douglas leads this year has the same ability to keep cool in moments of stress.
“We kept our composure against Penn State,” Douglas said. “We overcame 25 turnovers. But that 1-3-1 zone trap of theirs rattled us at times. It was very effective.” Douglas even suggested to coach Christy Curry that “maybe we ought to try that trap ourselves.”
Penn State’s switching defenses were effective throughout the Big Ten tournament. Opponents averaged 20.7 turnovers a game, and the Lions averaged 10.7 steals. However, Ohio State, Illinois and Purdue outrebounded the Lions 34-29, 51-39 and 44-27, an average of more than 1l a game.
Darling felt that the trapping zone that helped the Lions’ takeaway totals also cost them rebounds.
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“Susan Blauser and the other Illinois rebounders did good jobs going after the ball,” said Darling after the semifinal victory over the Illini. “But we were in that zone, and it’s hard to box out players when you’re in a zone.”
After Purdue outrebounded Penn State by 14, Darling said, “It was the zone. It’s hard to block people off the boards when you zone. Opponents get offensive rebounds.”
Purdue’s 5-7 guard Kelly Komara was the leading rebounder in the title game, accounting for all nine off the defensive glass. “That’s because we missed so many three-point shots (10 of 14),” said Penn State coach Rene Portland.
Penn State, ranked No. 7 nationally, will have almost two weeks between the end of the Big Ten tournament and the start of the NCAA playoffs.
This gives Portland time to dump the zone trap, reinforce her team leader’s confidence it in or study tapes of teams that rebound well out of a zone and teach these techniques to her players.
Big East power: Auriemma and McGraw said the Big East is so strong that it could send send two of its three top-10 teams–Connecticut, Notre Dame and No. 8 Rutgers–to the Final Four.
“We’ve never had the level of competition this league has now,”Auriemma said. “We could have more than one in the Final Four. In some years past, we had only one team in the NCAA tournament.”
Said McGraw: “The year we went to the Final Four (1997) we lost three times to Connecticut. The Big East is stronger now.
“You’re not going to see a conference with four as strong as UConn, Rutgers, Boston College and Notre Dame.”
The strength of the Big East, Auriemma said, is directly linked to the ability of point guards such as Niele Ivey of the Irish, Tasha Pointer of Rutgers, Cal Bouchard of No. 17 Boston College and his own Sue Bird.
“Is Sue Bird the best player on our team? No, not neccessarily,” Auriemma said. “Svetlana Abrosimova or Shea Ralph is. Is Sue Bird our most valuable player? Yeah, obviously, because of her position.”